No walk in the park in Africa’s safaris

Zimbabweans are amongst the biggest meat eaters on Earth. And Zimbabwean walking safari guides demand the fattest steaks of all.

Gives them courage, and strength, they say. And these are the most courageous, and the strongest, of all Africa’s safari guides. These men walk amongst wild beasts, with no protection.

So feed them meat, I say, I need all their courage.

But when I tell them I was vegetarian for years; it’s the darnedest thing they’ve ever heard. “So what did you eat?” “Vegetables,” I tell them. They stare at me: “For every meal?!”.

Who would’ve thought here in Africa it would be me telling the most incredulous story? Forget the close call tales of lions poised to attack, and elephants ready to charge.

The coffee here’s plain and strong, too. Guides drink it thick enough for your spoon to stand upright. The caffeine sharpens the senses. And no-one relies on their senses more to survive anywhere in Africa.

I’m in Mana Pools, northern Zimbabwe. There is no other wildlife park like Mana Pools on Earth. What sets this game park apart is that anyone is permitted to walk round on foot – nowhere else on the planet offers that. And because wildlife in other parks of Africa will move away as we approach, here big game is so used to humans approaching by foot we can get closer to wildlife out of 4WDs than at any other park in Africa.

And so a tour here will put you a long way out of your comfort zone. I’d flown into a tiny dirt airstrip from the capital, Harare. Guides picked me up in a 4WD, then told me not to get used to it. We drove past four lions. From the safety of the vehicle, I stare in wonder, till the guide whispers: “We’ll get closer when we’re on foot.”

Camps in Mana Pools are all of the safari tent variety. Which in itself can be confronting. I throw my bag into a tent overlooking the Zambezi River; then return to the main mess tent for lunch. As I eat a four-course meal of salads and steak, washed down with South African red wine; an elephant and her calf walk just metres away. “Don’t worry, they won’t come in,” the waiter tells me when I step back as the mother smells me with her trunk.

At another camp, a guide shows me a drum. “When you hear this drum, stay in your tent,” he tells me. “It means there’s lions in camp, they’ll soon pass by.” Though last night, I’m told, lions turned the camp into a love shack. No-one got sleep (a lion can mate every 15 minutes for eight hours). From camp, I look out across the lush green banks of the river, populated by four members of the Big Five.

Each afternoon – when the sun’s lost some of its midday sting – we’ll take a walking safari from camp. Instructions are given… carefully: “Stand behind the guide always, we have the gun,” my guide says. “And whatever you do, never, ever run. You cannot out-run any animal here.” There’s a herd of elephants 100 metres to our left. Our guide is watching them very closely: “It’s ok, her ears are flapping, if her body gets rigid, we’re in trouble.” He says no animal poses the risk that an elephant does – it’s the most unpredictable of all the animals here. But it’s lions which fascinate me most. We find the same pride of four we’d seen before from the vehicle. It’s still hot – 37 degrees at least – and so they’re sleeping in the shade. Then the big male shakes his head and stares at me. I’m shocked, but my guide tells me in this heat they’re docile. And so we walk closer, and he calls to it in Zulu. The lion mock-roars, but our presence here doesn’t threaten him.

In the evenings, we return to camp for drinks looking across the river plains as the sun sets. When night falls, walking safaris would be suicide…for lions hunt by night.

If Mana Pools were in any other country in Africa, it would be a household name. But Zimbabwe’s political issues have stopped the flow of international tourists.I feel like I have this park almost entirely for myself.

I’m staying at a variety of bush camps. At one – Kanga Camp – animals come to me, as I’m set up in a luxury tented camp on the edge of the only watering hole for kilometres. There I can embark on an armchair safari – where I sit on the deck of a bar built just above the water. Then we drive an hour north-west to the banks of the Zambezi River, where the landscape changes to floodplains; where we have to find the animals on foot.

There are 4WD safaris too – so older, less mobile guests are also catered for – but it’s the adrenalin that goes with walking safaris in Mana Pools that sets this place apart; for nothing focuses your mind quite like the realisation you’re no longer number one on the food chain.

I’m here not only to walk amongst wild animals on a walking safari. I’m also here for guided canoe rides – for this is one of the best places in Africa to paddle a river full of Nile crocodiles (similar in size and aggression to our own salt-water variety) and hippos. As I paddle down the river, hippos thrust their way out of their watery beds at the sound of my approach. Guides tell me it’s the crocs who’ll be more likely to eat me.

There’s an old-world charm to tours here which feels borrowed from the pages of the Wilbur Smith novels I read as a kid. Gin and tonics are served on deck chairs at sunset at every camp; and no-one skimps on meals. Here they’re of the gourmet variety, in proportions you’d call American-sized, plus some. Though just don’t go telling anyone you’re vegetarian.

Take me there

Fly: South African Airways fly to Harare via Johannesburg and Perth from $1600 return, flysaa.com

Tours: Organise a tour, including accommodation, meals, activities and charter flights from Harare with The Classic Safari Company, classicsafaricompany.com.au

Check: Zimbabwe can suffer droughts or floods. This year was one of the worst, but rains have now started and the bush is recovering. Mana Pools shuts down until the end of March but Nyamatusi Camp is open until end of the year.

Explore more: zimbabwetourism.net

THREE ANIMALS YOU’LL ENCOUNTER

LIONS

Though they’re regarded as the laziest of the African big cats (they can sleep up to 20 hours a day), lions kill 250 people on average a year. So while they’re regarded as nocturnal (their eyesight is better under low light and they use darkness to approach prey closer), remember they can run at 80 kmh, even in daylight hours. One of the world’s most revered creatures, their population has declined by 50 percent in 25 years to around 20 000. But there’s still plenty to see in Mana Pools. Best seen around thorn thickets where they rest by day.

ELEPHANTS

Although often portrayed as gentle giants (they are the world’s largest land animal), never under-estimate an elephant. Most guides will tell you they are the hardest animals to gauge, they’re known to be subject to unexpected bouts of range, and they’re even known to be vindictive. But these enormous creatures are always the stars of any safari. Apart from apes, they’re the most intelligent of all land animals and it shows. In Mana Pools some elephants – like YouTube star, Boswell – have even learnt to stand on two feet to feed from trees. There’s 85 000 left in Zimbabwe, so you’re guaranteed to see them every day.

NILE CROCODILES

Apart from our own salt-water crocs, Nile crocodiles are amongst the most feared animal anywhere on Earth. They’re also one of the deadliest animals in Africa – responsible for hundreds of deaths a year (they can grow to six metres long). You’ll find them all through the Zambezi River which flows through Mana Pools. The national park is famous for its number of Nile crocodiles, you can view them throughout the park; visitors occasionally see them feed on zebras feeding by the river’s edge, or even smaller hippos.